Review of Adsorptive Desulfurization of Liquid Fuels and Regeneration Attempts

Sulfur in refined or processed petroleum liquid fuels has harmful effects on humans, agricultural crops, and buildings when emitted into the environment during the combustion of the fuels. The first part of this review focuses on the adsorptive desulfurization of liquid fuels using different types of adsorbent materials. The second part is on the regeneration attempts that have been made over the past several years on the spent materials with a view to reusing them for desulfurization in subsequent cycles. Unfortunately, the review clearly shows that the regeneration methods have met only partial success. With bacterial treatments increasingly becoming common in several environmental remediation applications, as a standalone or in a hybrid approach, the bioregeneration of the spent (desulfurization) adsorbents appears to be promising. This review promotes the bacterial regeneration method using the same bacteria that is used for desulfurization of the fuels.

Automated summary

This review focuses on the adsorptive desulfurization of liquid fuels and the attempts made to regenerate the spent materials. It suggests that bacterial regeneration using the same bacteria used for desulfurization shows promise.